


no lasting damage

by Misila



Category: Free!
Genre: Blue Prompt, Car Accidents, Day 5, Established Relationship, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, RinHaru Week 2018, Romance, phonecalls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 00:47:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17090912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misila/pseuds/Misila
Summary: “…You came running?” is Rin’s greeting when Haruka stops coughing, and behind the mess of red locks falling on his face Haruka catches glimpses of a swelling bruise; still, his boyfriend looks a bit…Well.Healthier than Haruka imagined.





	no lasting damage

 

 

 

 

It is by chance that Haruka picks up the phone, the crucial moment he halts his impatient pacing around his flat that allows him to hear the vibration against the low table. And his first instinct is to ignore it and head for the bathroom to submerge in cold water until either Rin comes back with an apology or his ears stop burning in indignation, but the glance he throws at the device reveals that it’s too long a number which is calling.

Which means it’s definitely not Rin wanting to admit he was in the wrong, but intrigues Haruka enough to grab the phone and bring it to his ear.

“Hello?”

“Nanase Haruk—…?” The voice, calm and monotone, halts abruptly. “Ah, sorry, could I speak to her? She’s listed as Matsuoka Rin’s…”

“I _am_ Nanase Haruka,” he cuts the man on the other side of the line off, wondering why on earth Rin gave his number to a stranger. “Who are you?”

“Oh, I see.” A deep breath comes out of the speaker. “You are listed as Matsuoka-san’s emergency contact…”

It’s as if the irritation boiling in Haruka’s chest freezes all of a sudden, cold claws taking a grip of him where he was fuming barely two seconds ago. His legs lose strength and his grip on the phone tightens to make up for it as he drops himself on the chair of his desk, struggling to breathe solid air that scratches like sand.

“What happened to Rin?”

He reasons he must have interrupted the man when he hears him trail off, but he’s too busy figuring out how to use his frosted lungs to care.

 

 

* * *

 

 

When, nearly two hours ago, Rin stormed off Haruka’s flat, he himself said it was to cool off before their argument escalated and either of them ended up saying something they regretted. Haruka agreed, opted to do the same inside. Despite Rin’s impressive flair for dramatics, their fights are usually silly enough to get solved within minutes; and so Haruka was waiting for Rin to knock on the door any moment, to apologise for forgetting his key and to admit Haruka was right, to which Haruka would have admitted in return that Rin had a point too.

Such expectations admitted variations, like Rin not mentioning anything about the key or clinging to Haruka like a koala; but a stranger calling to inform Haruka that Rin was _involved in a car accident_ was too far-fetched an option to even be considered.

So by the time Haruka finds himself running towards the hospital, refusing to slow down even as the freezing night burns his lungs with every intake of air, there is a whole new range of possible outcomes spreading before him, too wide to even start to sort them out. Investing most of his energy in his sprint doesn’t exactly help, but there are no trains at this time of the night and the hospital is only a couple of stops away.

Haruka isn’t overly familiar with hospitals; he must look lost enough for a tiny lady behind the information desk to take pity on him; she’s more than happy to tell him where he can find Rin. It’s all so quick that Haruka has yet to stop coughing by the time he reaches the place.

He blames it on the cold he’s pretty sure he just worsened running towards the hospital.

Rin is sitting on a stretcher, toying with the fringe of the scarf he wrapped around his neck before leaving the flat, now pooling on his lap. His right leg hangs over the bed, stops swinging as he looks up and spots Haruka leaning on the wall, trying to regain his breath and suddenly afraid _he_ might need Rin to make room for him on the mattress.

“…You came running?” is Rin’s greeting when Haruka stops coughing, and behind the mess of red locks falling on his face Haruka catches glimpses of a swelling bruise; still, his boyfriend looks a bit…

Well.

Healthier than Haruka imagined.

“There are no trains,” Haruka offers, still breathless. He covers the remaining distance in a couple of steps, sits down on the edge of the mattress as he looks Rin up and down once more, just to make sure he didn’t miss any broken bone sticking out of his skin. “You aren’t dying.”

Already leaning on his shoulder, Rin straightens himself back up, glaring at Haruka.

“Well, sorry I don’t meet your expectations, I’ll try harder next time.” Haruka shakes his head, but Rin ignores him. “And I _am_ hurt, mind you,” he goes on, pointing with his chin at the leg he still has on the stretcher. “I can’t walk for at least a week. Or swim! And look,” he pushes his hair aside, allowing Haruka to see the admittedly painful-looking bruise in his forehead in all its glory, “half my face will be like this tomorrow… It’s as if I had headbutted a goat. At least the nurse said they won’t leave a mark, but still. Until then…”

While Haruka agrees visible injuries are inconvenient –particularly because people have the bad habit of asking about them–, it takes him a bit to guess where Rin’s lack of concern about being unable to swim for a week comes from.

“Haru, I didn’t know cars can hit you in so many places at once.” Rin is clinging to Haruka’s arm now; his rambling has derailed so quickly that Haruka is lost for a second. “You should try it, some day—… Ah, wait, no, you shouldn’t. It’s bad. It hurts. Don’t get hit by a car.”

Rin presses his lips into a thin line to stop more words from spilling out unchecked, the first display of self-control he has shown in the three minutes since Haruka arrived.

And Haruka somehow manages to hold back his laughter, but the affection laced with his voice as his arm sneaks around Rin’s waist is loud enough for his boyfriend to hear:

“You hit your head too hard.”

“Did I?” Rin frowns, gingerly touching his bruise. “I guess… That’s why the doctor insisted on calling you, I think. She said I can’t leave alone because I’m… uh…” He scrunches up his face in concentration. “Disoriented?” he tries, and Haruka nods because it sounds believable.

“Then we have to talk to her before leaving… Do you know where she is?”

Rin shakes his head, nuzzling closer to Haruka’s neck until he is nestled under Haruka’s chin.

“She should be back soon,” he mutters. “You heart is beating really fast.”

Haruka hums. “From running.”

His words are met with silence, thus ending the conversation. Soon Rin starts a new one though:

“Can I sleep until the doctor comes back?”

Haruka only shrugs, because judging by Rin’s slurred words it’s not as if he has much of a saying in the matter.

 

 

* * *

 

 

It’s been three hours since the argument when Haruka and Rin make it back to the flat.

By then Rin is so sleepy that the only reason he doesn’t doze off on his feet is that he can’t put much weight on one of them. Way more awake than his boyfriend, Haruka helps him to change into something more comfortable and lie down on the bed; but his plan of doing the dishes and hoping his eyes stop resembling an owl’s is thwarted the second Rin’s hand shoots out, fingers curling around Haruka’s wrist.

“Are you still angry?”

Haruka tilts his head. Rin is visibly struggling just to stay awake, but his stubborn grip is solid.

“Angry?”

“We argued,” Rin reminds him, even though he doesn’t sound particularly confident about it. “That’s why I was outside, right?”

Suddenly holding his sleepy gaze is too hard a task. Haruka shies away from Rin’s wide eyes, a bit resentful his boyfriend doesn’t start rambling again and forgets the matter quickly, but he still sits on the bed.

“Your heart is beating slower now,” Rin comments, thumb pressed where Haruka’s pulse feels the loudest. _Ah, there it is_. A change of topic. “It gets really fast when you run… I was running too.”

“Were you?” Haruka is way too tired to make sense of Rin’s frayed patches of thoughts at nearly three in the morning, so he just plays along.

“Earlier, when I was hit.” The clarification feels like a knife twisting in Haruka’s stomach. “I was in a hurry to come back, that’s why I didn’t see the car.”

Haruka exhales slowly. Perhaps Rin isn’t as out of it as it seems. “That was pretty stupid of you.”

“No, I really wanted to get back quickly,” Rin insists, but Haruka can feel the grip around his wrist loosening. “We argued, so I wanted to talk to you to fix it, because it’s always something dumb. But now I don’t—… What did we argue about?”

Haruka sighs, leans down to press a careful kiss on Rin’s forehead. Rin not remembering that conversation is, at the very least, cruel.

“It doesn’t matter, Rin. I promise I’m not angry.”

“Then sleep with me.”

There’s a challenge in Rin’s voice, as if sharing a bed were the ultimate proof two people get along.

But Haruka’s anger vanished the second Rin left the flat, and it was more of annoyance than actual resentment in the first place. Not to mention that now that Rin is safe, that none of his injuries are permanent and he’s just acting a little bit weird, Haruka is way more preoccupied with the _could have been_ than Rin calling him unreasonable on the spur of the moment.

It doesn’t take Haruka long to change into his own sleepwear and slip under the covers with his boyfriend. Light seems to bother him, so he lies facing the wall; Haruka switches off the lamp before sneaking an arm around Rin’s waist, and he can’t help but smile when his boyfriend leans back against him, fingers intertwining with the ones resting on his stomach.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Rin says suddenly, and if it weren’t because Haruka is already wide awake he’d be startled by the unusually high volume of his voice.

“What, exactly?”

Rin squeezes Haruka’s fingers gently.

“That I got hit by a car.”

Haruka huffs, buries his nose in Rin’s hair. “I know that.”

“Good.” Rin’s thumb draws a couple of circles on the back of Haruka’s hand. “But then why are you so tense?”

Haruka shakes his head, close enough for Rin to feel it.

“Not your fault.”

But after the conversation is over, once Rin’s breathing slows down, Haruka’s eyelids droop closed for the first time since Rin walked out of the flat.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Rin wakes Haruka up even before than the alarm does, and as a trail of kisses wanders down the side of his neck Haruka decides that he likes this morning’s clingy Rin better than last night’s messy, overly perceptive Rin.

“Good morning,” Haruka mutters, voice raspy. He opens his eyes to find his boyfriend lying on his side, red locks sprawled on the pillow. In the scarce light filtering through the curtains, Rin’s forehead is decidedly more bruised than last night, but it’s not as bad as he feared. It’s Rin’s small smile what catches Haruka’s attention. “What?”

“I remembered why we argued,” Rin says.

Haruka sighs, closes his eyes again. “Is that all you woke me up for?”

“No.” Rin pokes at his side, making Haruka flinch. “I’ve been thinking about last night, too… You were right, people fussing over you can be annoying.”

Perhaps there is a point to be made about the difference between Haruka’s cold and being run over by a car, but that’s not the main issue. For some minutes Haruka stares at Rin, reaches out to tuck a stray wisp of hair behind his ear.

“You were right too,” he admits. Rin’s smile dissolves into a confused frown. “You can’t just not…” Haruka pauses to put his thoughts in order, his hand cupping Rin’s cheek. “Last night I was scared. Even after seeing you, I couldn’t stop thinking that it could have been worse.”

Rin huffs, brings his hand up to take Haruka’s. “And I thought putting you as my emergency contact was a good idea.”

Haruka’s index taps on Rin’s cheekbone in protest. “Why wouldn’t it?”

“I thought that, if something happened, you wouldn’t freak out as much as my mother or Gou,” Rin explains. “I was obviously wrong.”

“I didn’t freak out.”

Rin smiles. “You did. And it’s selfish and I’ll regret saying it when I get my filter back, but I was so happy when I saw you.”

Haruka’s lower lip trembles as much as his uneasy giggle, because he has slept for less than four hours and he’s finally realising that Rin is with him, that none of the thousands of awful possibilities that squeezed his heart when he was running to the hospital as if his life depended on it is true. All the fear piled up in the back of his throat burns as it melts into relief; and there is only so long Haruka can blame his cold for the itching behind his eyelids.

“Never do anything like this again,” he whimpers. He’s pretty sure something about Rin reaching for him and pulling him close is out of place, but he can’t bring himself to care. “Look both ways before crossing the damned road.”

Rin’s laughter wavers too, but the kiss that lands on the top of Haruka’s head is firm.

“Okay.”

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is my second (and most likely last) entry for this year's event, and... actually the idea I was less likely to write, even though I enjoyed working on it a lot.
> 
> If you liked the fic, please consider leaving a comment. Thank you so much for reading!


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